Who Went Home and Why?

Brought to us by Netflix, The Trust: A Game of Greed, is a new competition reality series that doesn’t challenge contestants to adrenaline-rushing life-threatening challenges, but to something even harder: learning to trust strangers and share.

Hosted by Brooke Baldwin, Season 1 brings together the following 11 contestants: Juelz Morgan, Tolú Ekundare, Julie Theis, Winnie Ileso, Brian Firebaugh, Jake Chocholous, Lindsey Anderson, Bryce Lee, Simone Stewart, Jay Patterson, and Gaspare Randazzo.

They are presented with a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000), aka The Trust.

Each contestant starts with an equal share of the money. And in an ideal world, they would cooperate and continue to split this money 11 ways. However, that makes for boring television and only leaves each contender roughly $22,730.

That said, contestants have the option to vote to eliminate their peers, which in turn increases their share of the money. In a game where majority rules takes precedent, all it takes is just one vote to eliminate someone and send them home.

During Episodes 1 through 4 of The Trust, two contestants were eliminated by group. We review their eliminations below, including who voted them off and why.

Juelz was eliminated during Episode 1 after Lindsey, Winnie, and Julie voted him off. Tolú also wanted him gone, but didn’t have voting power at the trust ceremony.

The first contestant to be sent packing, Juelz didn’t make the best impression on the rest of the group when he entered the villa with his shirt unbuttoned. Not only that, but he told everyone he was a personal trainer and stripper, instead of his actual job as a cop.

Many of the women felt he was a player was being dishonest with the group about something, although they weren’t sure what. The ladies’ feelings about him further intensified about him after he and Simone were selected to visit The Vault. There, they were presented two offers — one which added money to their individual pockets and one which added money to the Trust for everyone. Juelz and Simone, unselfishly, chose the latter.

This offer meant that $5,000 would be added to the Trust, but they had to block two players’ votes in the next trust ceremony.

They chose Bryce and Tolú, based off a random list of the contestants names seen in The Vault.

Tolú was not pleased with their decision to take her power away, believing Juelz intentionally picked her to silence her. She expressed her feelings about him to the girls, who voted him off for her. Lindsey, Winnie, and Julie were the only contestants that voted during that trust ceremony and they all casted a vote for Juelz. The other contestants were shocked that Juelz had been voted off.

Simone was eliminated in Episode 3 after Jay and Julie voted her off.

While most contestants referred to Simone as a “sweetheart,” the single mom made an enemy in Episode 2 after contestants were asked to rank themselves in multiple categories, including intelligence and trustworthiness. Jake decided to put himself first in both categories. His actions did not fare well with the women.

Afterward, Jay was very vocal about how she felt, calling him a narcissist and misogynist. When she confronted Jake about how belittling his actions were to all of the women there, Simone interrupted her and told everyone that she was offended by Jake’s actions in the game.

Jay was not pleased with Simone’s comment and told the rest of the ladies that she would be voting someone out at the next trust ceremony, but wouldn’t reveal who. Julie, who was developing feelings for Jake, feared that Jay was going to axe him.

However, per the rules of the game, if there is a tie in who to vote out, then nobody gets eliminated. She decided to cast a vote for Simone to cancel out Jay’s vote for Jake. But to Julie’s surprise, Jay actually voted Simone out.

New episodes of The Trust: A Game of Greed drop on Netflix on Jan. 17, followed by the series finale on Jan. 24.